CVE-2017-16548: Canonical Ubuntu Linux

Critical severity, CVSS 9.8. EPSS: 5.8% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

The receive_xattr function in xattrs.c in rsync 3.1.2 and 3.1.3-development does not check for a trailing '\0' character in an xattr name, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer over-read and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact by sending crafted data to the daemon.

Affected products

• Canonical Ubuntu Linux: version 12.04 only; version 14.04 only; version 16.04 only; version 17.10 only
• Debian Debian Linux: version 7.0 only; version 8.0 only; version 9.0 only
• Samba Rsync: after 2.6.9, up to and including 3.1.2

Published 2017-11-06. Last modified 2026-06-17.